FFRF has N.C. public school remove unconstitutional church signs

January 3, 2019

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has ensured an end to a North Carolina school district’s unconstitutional advertising of weekly religious services at a local church.

Southwest Elementary School in Durham, N.C., was allowing Keystone Church to place a large sign on the school’s lawn to advertise its Sunday worship services. FFRF’s local complainant reports that the sign was up at all times, including during the school week. The school had also allowed the church to store materials visible to students in the gym, including signs advertising the church.

It is well settled that public schools may not advance, prefer or promote religion, FFRF reminded Durham Public Schools. Advancing, preferring and promoting religion is exactly what a school does when it allows a church to prominently place an advertisement for students, parents, school employees and anyone passing by to see.

FFRF’s request that the school district remove all church property from school grounds during times when the church was not renting school facilities was heeded.

“The church street sign has been removed and the signs that are stored in the gym have been completely covered,” the school district’s representative replied in an email.

FFRF appreciates the school district’s responsiveness.

“We would prefer that churches not rent public school facilities for worship,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “But when they do, public schools must ensure signage is confined to rental periods and conforms to other school policies.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 32,000 members and several chapters across the country, including over 600 members and the Triangle Freethought Society chapter in North Carolina.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity, is the nation's largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate.